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SOUNDS LIKE: The pressure release of rain drops hitting parched red sand after a sweltering day and possibly the best owl recording that Ann has ever taken.

CONTAINS: Patches of rain, and distant frogs happy with the rain, kingfishers with insomnia. And a spectacular territorial display from barking owls.

RECOMMENDED FOR: Lovers of weather, of romance and whimsy, and also of birds-which-sound-like-they're-anything-but-birds enthusiasts.

ANN'S NERDY SOUND NOTES:

This is an incredibly dramatic place — and a special place in Yinjibarndi lore. It definitely has that gravitas. The water is surrounded in part by dark red, iron-filled cliff faces, cool grey-blue spinifex clumps and immense river red gums right at the water's edge.

Even in the middle of the night, and even when it is raining enough to form puddles on the sand, the waterholes of arid Australia are centres of activity. So, although the landscape is all red sand and rocks, spinifex and heat haze, beside this spring-fed waterhole at Millstream Chichester National Park in the Pilbara in WA, it is pure, cool air.

The water in this pool is so deep and cool that it gives you goosebumps if you jump in, even when it's 40 degrees in the shade.

And the string of waterholes here are home to huge Pilbara Olive Pythons , which grow up to 4m long and can stay motionless for days on end waiting for the perfect meal to come too close. They can eat a whole rock wallaby in a sitting.

Maybe they're the ones responsible for some of the quiet movements in this recording (which is, side note, possibly one of the most wonderfully surprising recordings I have ever taken).

Not one, not two, not three but MORE nocturnal bird species all making themselves known between the rain patches. Magic.

From the lands of the Ngarluma and Yindjibarndi people listen to raindrops hit dusty surfaces.

00:00:00 Hear the rain pattering on the water, and the occasional 'tong' as a drop hits the microphone or a branch of the tree the microphone is attached to.

Incredibly, you can hear a distant boobook (which sounds like its name boo-book) calling AND An owlet nightjar chirring (sounds a little bit like the turbo flutter on a souped-up car. If it was toy sized).

00:01:15 You may be able to hear the first hints of the star of this show. Not the boobook, but its larger cousin, who will approach closer and closer throughout this recording.

00:02:30 A tiny sacred kingfisher is calling in the middle of the night. It sounds like one of those toy dogs they sell at markets that walk round and round in tight circles. In fact, I suspect this is two kingfishers. They may be calling to keep in touch with each other in the darkness, or even as they migrate (many birds travel at night).

00:04:54 There is a sound like a computer mouse clicking but I have no idea who makes it, whether it is an insect or a movement of another critter, perhaps a grasshopper eating dry grass, the sound of the tree 'relaxing'? Please let me know if you have an idea. 

00:04:55 There is a very high pitched squeaking. Could it be a rodent? A marsupial? an Insect? 

00:05:34 A distant scream. It sounds metallic, like shed door being slid back. This is probably a barn owl — a wonderfully handsome owl with white chest feathers and a disc face. THOUGH, it could also be another bird getting a fright like…

00:06.10 Your ears do not deceive you it is barking owl. There is a pair in residence, and throughout this recording they will get closer and closer. I believe this is the male.

00:06:35 in other contexts I would say this is definitely a woodpecker. But in Australia we don't have them. Perhaps a water bird growl? A frog? A Tree with a backache?

00:12:40 Heavier rain here for a time. 

00:13:12 Though it sounds like a meow, or a whine, this is actually more likely to be a mosquito-like insect whirring past.

00:18:5 0 Here you can feel the breeze building and the start of light rain. You might hear the rustling of grass, or leaves touching the microphone casing.

00:19:40 An insect gives a call much closer to the mic. Remember that these sounds are likely made by rubbing parts of the body together imagine wings shivering, feet agitating, extremely fast, thousands of times over to give this chorus. The whole chorus is likely made up of katydids and crickets, but further identification is beyond me.

Over 100 000 invertebrate specimens have been collected by the Pilbara Region Biological Survey (across the whole Pilbara) and experts thing that at least 85 per cent of the species collected are new to Western science. They also think there is 'a high degree of endemism' which means that there is a high likelihood that some of these insects you're listening to are found nowhere else on earth.

00:21:15 A kingfisher is still awake.

00:21:30 Multiple kingfishers are still awake!? Perhaps set off by breeze and a sprinkle of rain? With the 'apple mouse' sound (very quiet clicking) scattered throughout.

00:26:32 Who the hell flies around that fast at night? The wings are cutting through the air quick enough that they sound like a passing skateboard. My gut feeling says ducks, but they are often quite vocal when coming into land, so who knows who the midnight speedster is.

00:27:50 For those with good high-frequency hearing there is an insect calling here that sound like a horse whinnying.

00:22:54 Not a garden hose set to a fine spray, but an insect testing its 'voice'

00:23:18 I think some of these sploshes are likely fish moving quickly at the top of the water and some of them are likely roosting birds doing midnight poos into the water.

Barking owls again along with owlet nightjars, and an insect that sounds like it's sending morse code during in the war.

00:24:15 What's so fascinating about his 'hose fine spray / morse code / radio tuning' insect (which gives a little burst here) is how neatly it occupies a hole in the sound frequencies of other insects in the chorus neatly in between the almost constant crickets (probably) and the higher maraca-like jazz drummer who plays in rhythm but with the 'rest' at a different point in every bar.

00:24:50 Someone is rustling. In the reeds? In the grass? Along the dry wood of the tree?

00:26:10 Dr Jodi Rowley tells me this is the quite newly delineated Western Desert tree frog (Colleeneremia larisonans), found only in this patch of West Australia!

00:26:35 The owls slowly moving positions to come closer and closer to where I've put the microphones. You can clearly hear the pair calling back and forth here.

00:27:50 Are there… three?

00:28:10 Definitely three you can hear the third Barking Owl butting in on the duet, with a lower, more distant roof-roof.       

00:34:40 A Horsfield's Bronze Cuckoo is heard in the background, with a repeating descending call. It's a tiny bird just 22grams or so, and it lays its eggs in fairy wren or thornbill nests and leaves those parents to bring up its young. It's gorgeous with an olivey-bronze back and a stripey cream and brown front.

00:36:20 Who was that? I like to think it could be one of a Ngarrawirri (flat-shelled freshwater turtle), but perhaps it is a huge, endangered Bargunyji (Pilbara Olive Python), who love these spring fed, temperature stable waterholes.

00:38:00 It's quietly raining.

00:40:45 is that… a crunch? A mouthful being chomped? Or a scratchy sound across bark?

00:42:50 Very high-pitched sounds here my gut feeling says some sort of mammal, though I am not sure. And I suspect it is linked with the 'apple mouse' sound also. 

00:44:50 The rain is sounding lovely here like a quiet wash of 'shhhhhh's' in between the more strident insects

00:46:15 An owlet nightjar and a very, very quiet boobook take advantage of the barking owls taking smoko from their territorial calls.

00:47:10 A 'day time' bird — a honeyeater calling.

00:50:100 They're back. And they're even closer. In the previous minutes a boobook was calling, and in between a very distant barking owl. Perhaps this local pair started up in response.

00:52:10 Spicy conversations. 

00:53:50 Your ears are now being assaulted by some sort of cicada (possibly?) singing at about 12khrtz. If you are one of the people out there who can hear electrical appliances in stand-by mode, like me, I apologise.

00:55:20 I have not added any effects that reverberation is the bird calls echoing across the waterhole. It is more obvious here because it has stopped raining, allowing you to hear different things. The owls are so loud that I've had to bring the volume down in the recording. It sounds like they're standing right next to the recorder.

00:56:00 It gets slightly messy here, trying to tell how many birds are calling. But this waterhole is clearly highly-desirable property.

00:56:30 I love that there are some calls that literally sound like the bird is muttering under its breath. Almost as if the female is getting sick of his… barking.

00:59:00 Here comes more rain. A bit heavier this time.

01:01:30 Oh lord, they're still going even in the rain. As is the little 'apple smart mouse' sounding insect, and after a small amount of time a distant boobook.

01:09:30 It might sound like radio interference but it's an insect doing it's best to find a mate. Though it does sound a little bit like it's trying to do it while driving on a bumpy road without good suspension.

01:10:20 PHAOR! That sounded like a good bellyflop from a fish.

01:15:20 Enough water that it's dribbling into a puddle now. 

01:16:00 It makes you wonder how they get any time to hunt. Though, it is raining consistently here that wonderful pitter-patter of a million drops hitting surfaces in the desert.

01:18:15 Our radio interference insect starts to get a good run here. It's a multi-tone call (like the insect is playing a chord rather than a note).

01:21:00 The rain seems to have eased slightly here and I can hear multi-layered insect chorus, the barking owls and an owlet nightjar joining in.

01:27:40 The kingfishers are still calling.

01:28:10 So. many. woofs. 

01:30:00 The rhythm and volume of the insects has reduced here we're heading towards dawn. The fuzz of rain sounds is taking over. With the occasional pop of a raindrop hitting something solid near the microphone.

01:28:08 A tiny insect flies in and lands…

01:32:00 Here comes the dawn chorus with blue winged kookaburra's leading the charge. They're a different species than the Laughing Kookaburra's more common in the cities of the eastern states and they have a very different call.

01:32:30 I wish I knew who this radio-tuning insect was. It's so distinctive compared to the others in the chorus.

01:36:10 Truly, it sounds as if that bird needs to let out the choke to get the engine started.

01:38:10 What a way to finish an astounding soundscape with birds that sound like intergalactic spaceships.

With thanks to Dr Elliot Leach and Gus Daly for putting up with a group chat where I send snippets of sound for them to identify as well as Dr Jodi Rowley who is endlessly patient with my frog questions.

SOUNDS LIKE: Laying in a hammock, your eyes closed, no-one for 500km, surrounded by red sand, listening to the wind in trees that've been around since the dinosaurs. Perfect conditions for a nap.

Sometimes, you just need to a bit of silence. Of course, nature is rarely silent. She's even better than that. She's better than ANY noise machine a human has ever invented. 

Let the sound of wind through needle-leaves on Akerre Country lull your worries away.

CONTAINS: Wind. Quiet. Zebra finches. Budgies. Mysterious rustling of small critters.

RECOMMENDED FOR: Fans of gentle soundscapes and wind in sheoaks, those who don't want machine white noise but need to put a baby to sleep.

ANN'S NERDY SOUND NOTES:

I have a weatherproof recorder that I can stick out in almost any conditions and in this case I attached it to what has been called 'Australia's loneliest tree' in the Simpson Desert.

To get there from Alice Springs, you travel through dune country, past ridges and through dry creek beds. And then all of a sudden a loose grove of skinny pine trees peak over the horizon. It is one of only two patches of Acacia peuce in the entire world. They're on opposite sides of the same desert and they're called lonely because they are solitary trees in an otherwise treeless landscape.

It's also known as waddi waddi, or maybe Birdsville wattle and this stand is on Akerre Country.

It is one of the rarest plants in the world and the wind through the needle-like leaves sounds gorgeous.

This recording was taken while I was on site in the Simpson Desert, NT filming for Australia's Favourite Tree.

We camped right near the Mac Clarke Reserve. And this is what I listened to all night.

00:00 I'm not sure I've ever been anywhere in Australia where there wasn't a cricket calling.

03:39 Zebra finches popular in aviaries worldwide but a native bird here in arid Australia, and for me they're one of the sounds that lets me know I'm somewhere arid.

08:12 They sound like desert fairy wings.

12:51 I *think* that that slightly… complaining sound is the contact call of singing honeyeaters. which are, somewhat ironically, not singing but sounding like they're complaining about their lunch order.

18:40 I wonder who it is hopping around the tree, making sounds like they're shuffling along the branches the recorder is connected to. It's probably not the zebra finches, as they don't seem to be able to go anywhere without talking about it.

25:40 See? The finches arrive, you can hear their wing beats and they say something about it immediately. I'm still not sure who was jumping around making those clicks and tocks. In fact, there is a phenomenal amount of activity throughout this recording.

27:20 There's also a chance it is something non-bird scrabbling around. It could be a reptile, a mammal like a plains mouse? Or a microbat (though I doubt that as I didn't pick up any of their calls)? A DUNNART? It could even be an insect scrabbling? Please leave your opinions on who is creeping around in the comments (if the platform you're listening on has comments)!

30:47 This sounds a little like the animal is shredding something.

33:25 A beetle, or an insect of some description flying by like it is at an air show!

42:50 The signature sound of dove wings.

43:50 Though it sounds a little like a swan (which don't really do deserts like this) it is actually a little bit of a diamond dove calling.

44:15 Budgerigars! WOO HOO!

50:00 Interestingly the insect / cricket that has been calling intermittently really starts a constant call from around this point. Insect noises and choruses can be driven by temperature, so it might literally have hit the right heat.

01:20:00 I could listen to the wind through these trees for the rest of my life and be a happy woman.

02:04:45 Someone with wings whispers in then lands with a slap/shuffle. Sounds like an insect to me, the texture of the wing beats sounds papery and dry. 

02:10:38 I rarely take a recording like this where the microphones or recorder don't get 'investigated' by a local. I've left this one in here for your enjoyment.

02:15:20 The wind is so perfect, it sounds fake. (It's not.)

With thanks to Dr Elliot Leach and Gus Daly for putting up with a group chat where I send snippets of sound for them to identify. And more seriously, thankyou to the Akerre people for standing with these trees for so long - they are a true wonder of the world. 

Recording: Dr Ann Jones.

Mastering: Isabella Tropiano

Executive Producer, Audio for ABC Science: Petria Ladgrove.

No music. No human voices. Just the sound of a frog chorus and a pre-dawn rain shower in arid Western Australia, recorded on location by the ABC's Dr Ann Jones. 

Get in a car in Perth and drive 4 hours northeast to sit beside a pool of water as the frogs call and rain rolls in. It's an hour before dawn.

This soundscape was recorded on Badimaya country on Charles Darwin Reserve which is owned by Bush Heritage Australia. I was there to film an amazing tree called the sandalwood for 'Australia's Favourite Tree' on ABC TV. The reserve is on the edge of the Southwest Botanical Province, which has more plant biodiversity that a tropical forest, and also the arid Eremean areas. And because it's on the borderlands, there are so many plants, animals, birds, and in this recording in particular amphibians to love.

00:00:00 The first thing that you hear is the Western Toadlets — Pseudophryne occidentalis. At least, this is the best guess without a DNA sample. You see, this area is in the overlap between two different types of toadlets which sound EXTREMELY similar.

They're not toads, they're toadlets, and very happy with the amount of water around by the sound of it.

Listening notes from Ann Jones:

00:02:40 The first of many microbat flybys in this recording. You can hear the echolocation clicks as the bats zoom past searching for food. That is, you'll hear them unless you are a little bit older, or have some hearing impairment at the higher frequencies, then you'll not be able to hear the bats, which sit at about 11500khz and above.

00:07:05 To be honest, I'm not sure who this bird is, but my gut feeling tells me they're disturbed a bit by something rather than the true start of the dawn chorus. The clicking, sort of tapping sound is soft rain hitting the microphones.

00:09:00 No wonder the frogs are calling. Here comes the rain.

00:49:30 Who dipped into the water? Or perhaps crapped into the water from above?

01:05:10 If you're a person lucky enough to still hear those high frequencies, you can hear the hunting buzz here as the bat zeros in on a flying insect to eat.

01:07:00 A couple of insects, or maybe just one joins in the chorus. There's one sound that constantly jiggles, and one that pulses. It is perhaps a cricket and or a cicada.

01:14:20 is this the real start of the dawn chorus from the birds? Or perhaps just a rustling in the pre-dawn.

01:34:50 A smattering of rain drops. Do the toadlets sound happier or is it just me?

01:52:40 A willy wagtail announces its time to get up and start the true bird chorus of the morning. There's also a spiny-cheeked honeyeater in there.

Thanks to Dr Elliot Leach and Dr Jodi Rowley for helping me confirm what I was hearing.

No music, no voices. Just the sound of the mountain ash forest, recorded by the ABC's Dr Ann Jones.

The mountain ash is the tallest flowering plant in the world, a eucalypt that can reach 90m in height. And beneath its arbour is an incredible array of wildlife, including an incredible chorus of birds.

I recorded this while filming 'Australia's Favourite Tree' for ABC TV near Marysville in Victoria.

It was a cold, misty morning on Taungurong Country and among the first sounds that can be heard in this recording is a male lyrebird practising some of his repertoire – both mimicry and his own sounds.

00:01:51 The lyrebird is imitating a black cockie here.

00:03:42 this lazer sort of sound is the lyrebird's own sounds.

00:06:25 The lyrebird makes both the male and female components of the whip bird call!

00:06:55 Heeeeere comes a parrot, screaming as it goes.

00:07:20 Pied Currawongs call to each other in the distance.

00:23:00 A fly fly-by!

00:35:10 Actual yellow tailed black-cockatoos incoming!

00:36:40 This incredibly sharp-sounding call is the pilot bird, a small brownish bird of the understorey. So-called because it sometimes 'pilots' the lyrebird, taking advantage of the lyrebirds superior digging skills to grab invertebrate prey uncovered.

00:56:40 Tune your ear to higher frequencies to hear a wonderful insect calling in pulses.

01:02:40 We've got some sulphur-crested cockatoo begging happening here. Consistent nagging like a toddler at the top of a tree. 

01:30:50 A pair of real whipbirds make an appearance here, with a two-part duet consisting of build and whip, and then an answering 'chew chew.'

01:34:20 The wing beats of a bird in flight.

01:56:30 Among the smaller birds, perhaps scrubwrens and thornbills, and definitely a grey fantail and a pilotbird, you can hear the black-cockies take flight and call to each other, the pied currawong. 

No music, no talking, just the sound of a rain storm in the desert.

Wiluna is a town on the Traditional lands of the Martu people in Western Australia. It’s on gorgeous arid country, about 960km east of Perth. After days of dry heat in excess of 40, it was late afternoon when a huge storm rolled in. Nowhere has storms like the desert, where the hot air rises off the ground to meet the clouds with huge rumbles and rolls that expand across the whole horizon. The rain continued on and off all night and into the next day when I got up in the morning to smell the wet sands and concrete of the town. Each burst of rain was greeted by bird song throughout the sunrise, and as the human occupants of the town slowly woke up.

Listening notes from Ann Jones:

04:28 Here comes the rain on the tin roof. The galahs scatter, calling. 5:10 A bonded pair of mudlarks (tiwily-tiwilypa), sometimes called peewees or magpie larks. sing a duet together.  

10:50 The pied butcherbirds (kararaputa) sing through the rainfall — a repetitive, slightly melancholy melody, and occasionally their diagnostic cackling call that almost sounds like yelling "missing you!" at the end of a quick phone call.  

14:30 This repetitive chirping call is a honeyeater, but which sort? Perhaps a yellow-throated miner (piiny-piinypa)? Comment below if you know!  

16:24 White-plumed honeyeater (Inatjara) calls sound a little bit like a slide whistle.  

20:40 This is probably the alarm call of the white-plumed honeyeater, letting its colleagues know of a danger or annoyance.  

21:28 The mudlarks stay in touch and reinforce their relationship by repeating their duet throughout the day.  

26:40 Little corellas start to fly and call in tremulous, quaver-y voices. It also sounds as if there is at least one young one with them begging for food, making a monotonous raspy grinding call from a tree.  

28:30 Cutting through above all the other birds is the tiny black-and-white willie wagtail (tjitirttjitirt). This call is diagnostic of the willie, and it will make it through the day and night. Listen also for the scolding chika-chika-chika call that the willie will make occasionally, probably to stay in touch with its family members in this context. You can also here two variations on the mudlark duets in this sequence, along with the little corellas.  

37:16 There are two possibilities for this corvid call – a torresian crow or a little crow (not tiny ones, that is their species name: little crow).  

37:40 The willie wagtail is back!  

41:30 The birds all seem to be responding to the rain, or perhaps a change in pressure associated with the rain? There are so many calls from the different species here.  

42:20 The incomparable sound of rain on a tin roof.  

48:38 The crows are at it again!  

47:00 You can occasionally hear a deeper click as water drops actually hit my microphone through this section, the drops were so big they were bouncing up off the ground and up onto the little box I’d put my recorder on under a shelter. My microphone covers were absolutely saturated after I finished this recording. 

No music, no voices, just imagine you’re camping beside a creek in early spring.  

Listening Notes from Ann:  

It was the first hot day of Spring on Wadawurrung Country west of Melbourne. Out of bed before the sun, I walked through the bush listening to the last of the nocturnal sounds, and found a place on a ridgeline overlooking a creek.  

There are hundreds of large trees with lots of hollows all scattered across the steep slope down to the creek and I set the recorders out just as the dawn chorus begins in earnest. There is the smallest of overlap between the boobooks calling as they settled to sleep, and the magpies and kookaburras leading the dawn chorus with their greetings to the sun (and territorial threatening screams of course).  

There are so, so many species in this recording – too many to list entirely! 

00:00:16 The boobook calls. Listen for a second boobook, who calls at 00:00:48, with a slightly different pitch. In the middle of the night, you can hear the boobooks call right along the creek.  

00:01:00 Raucous and loud – a family of kookaburras laughs in chorus. They’re communicating with each other and their neighbouring rivals that they’re awake, and fit, and ready to defend their territory today.  

00:07:50 Hear a kangaroo stomping and rustling in the grass and sticks probably heading down the hill to find a cosy spot in the lomandra to sleep for the day.  

00:10:20 It’s as if they all knew it was going to be a clear, warm day – everyone is singing and calling this morning. What a cacophony! 

00:21:40 Sulphur Crested Cockatoos rarely go anywhere without announcing themselves.  

00:23:48 The penetrating, rapid fire pipe of the white throated tree creeper repeats itself. These birds possess special feet that enable them to spend their life bouncing up tree trunks searching for insects, rather than grasping onto horizontal branches.  

00:26:50 The sound of several pardalotes can be heard throughout the recording with their repetitive stutter note – dik-dik… dik-dik. There are both striated and spotted pardalotes in this recording and there are several nests in the area in tiny little hollows in the trees as well as miniscule little burrows dug into the sides of the track and creek.  

00:37:30 Ravens. It’s notoriously difficult to tell the difference between raven species between calls, and I’ve seen both Australasian Ravens and Little Ravens at this spot. But, I do think these are little ravens, because there are so so so many of them. They’re all up and down the creek line communicating with each other with varying intensity and little ravens have a tendency to gather like this.  

00:39:20 This is a Shining bronze cuckoo a small bird that looks like it has a slightly spiky hair do and wears a stripey t shirt. Even though it’s wings are sort of iridescent, moving from olive green to eggplant purple, this small bird is inconspicuous and stays hidden in trees searching for caterpillars, sex and someone else’s nest to lay in.  

00:42:45 The Australian Magpie’s ability to sing that many notes at once will always astound me. In this part of Australia, the magpies are white backed magpies and even though they’ve got babies in the area, they’ve not been swoopy.   

00:44:00 In these ten seconds I can hear: little raven, two types of pardalotes, red wattlebird, grey shrike thrush and a baby magpie, common eastern froglets and there’s also a bird that has a descending whistle that I can’t quite place.  

00:45:02 here is a baby magpie annoying its parents for food. They’re almost ALWAYS hungry.  

00:45:20 A mix of long-billed corellas and sulphur crested cockatoos in this group. There are several really big old holey trees here and I think some of them have several nesting hollows in each.  

00:46:45 Extremely high-pitched melodic call of the grey fantail, darting about waggling it’s tail and scowling.  

00:47:45 The repeated single note of the Eastern Spinebill, which has a long skinny downward turned beak especially for getting delicious liquid from flowers. They dart about everywhere making wing flurries and generally being high on sugar as far as I can tell.  

00:50:20 The Grey Shrike thrush is calling – these birds are possibly one of the most common mystery sounds’ we get sent over at Off Track. They look as though they’re a bird drawing in grey scale, with the smoothest looking plumage and a little hook on the end of the beak. They sing like angels from hiding places, and can sometimes put on a real performance.  

00:52:12 Magpie parents have the patience of a million kindergarten teachers combined.  

00:54:20 Mixed in with the gorgeous magpie calling there are grey shrike thrush, rosella flight calls, Olive backed orioles, cockatoos, ravens, pardalotes, froglets. And, at 00:54:04 I *think* one of the magpies flies away – you can hear its wings in the air.   

00:56:30 Rosella calls – could be crimson or eastern – though crimson are more likely in the area.  And over the next minute they start bell calling to each other… which is lovely, except for that cockie making spewing screams over the top of everything.  

00:58:55 Is that a brown thornbill?  

01:05:20 As the parent gets closer the baby magpie’s calls change?  

01:05:20 I haven’t worked out what those low grunts are – some are rhythmic, some are longer. Is it a kookaburra with a sore throat? A baby kookaburra complaining about its accommodation? A possum being angry at a cockatoo? If you have an idea leave a comment! 

01:12:20 The call of a Pallid cuckoo is like a slowly ascending set of peeps. This is one of those birds which lays its eggs in the nest of another species and leaves them to bring up the kids.  

00:18:15 A rufous whistler calling out amongst the din – listen for relatively quick sliding whistles, almost whip-like, that sometimes are repetitive and other times sound like mosh pit madness with many notes thrown together jumping all over the place.  

00:19:26 A juvenile raven is getting its breakfast. That’s the sound of the regurgitated food going down its gullet! And, judging by those extremely quiet ticks, someone has landed very close to the microphone and is moving in the tree (my guess is a rosella, they click and crack in trees all day and it’s often this sound that gives them away rather than their calls). AND, this is followed closely by a pied currawong in the distance.  

01:20:52 A Superb fairy-wren with an extremely high-pitched call that gets faster like a golf ball circling a hole until it blasts off into manic neighing like the tiniest horse in the world. There’s also, I think, that weird kookaburra calls going on in this patch. I’m not sure.  

01:23:21 Hear that kookaburra carrying on?  

01:28:30 You can tell that day is well and truly underway and the temperature is rising, because that insect chorus starts pulsating. It also signals the end of the dawn chorus – from boobook to cicada. 

No music, no voices, just the sound of night time at a swamp on Wadawarrung Country in Victoria.  

Listening Notes from Ann Jones: 

There are at least three species of frogs calling all the way through this recording – maybe more. And they provide a wonderful blanket of noise for you to snuggle under. Here’s what I can hear:  

00:00:07 – The ‘tonk’, ‘bonk’ and ‘donk’ of the pobblebonk (Limnodynastes dumerilii). These frogs are sometimes also called banjo frogs because of their plucking call. They are a relatively big frog, maybe 8 or 9 cm long when fully grown, with a very pleased look on their face.  

00:00:15 This is the spotted marsh frog (Limnodynastes tasmaniensis) and it’s an interesting one. It sounds a bit like a striped marsh frog. But Jordann and Gracie from the Australian Museum FrogID team assure me it’s the southern call race of the spotted! In the north part of its range, the call of the spotted marsh frog is entirely different than in western Victoria.  

00:00:44 The consisted creaking of thousands of common eastern froglets. Individually they sometimes sound like a ratchet creaking back, but together it’s a cacophony of clicks all blending together. These are tiny little things, even when fully grown they might hit a top of 3 cm. They’re brown, and sometimes they have gorgeous stripes in different brown and olive tones which makes them look a little bit like a lolly.  

00:01:02 The high-pitched groups of calls that start softer and build in intensity are brown tree frogs. The frequencies really can hurt the human ear. These are a smallish brown frog that can live in drier parts of the bush. They don’t need to be right in the water all the time.  

00:18:22 This is a set of sonar searching calls of a freetail bat. There are few microbats whose calls sit within the range of human hearing, and your ability to hear this will depend on your age and how well you’ve looked after your hearing.  

00:25:20 This is the growling barky cough of the brushtail possum. With this call it is communicating its territory to the other possums in the vicinity.  

00:30:10 The possum comes very, very close to the microphone and you can also hear lambs calling in the distant farmland.  

00:46:10 There is something softly creeping here. Probably not the brushtails which tend to stampede everywhere they go. You can just hear the very, very quiet clicks of branches moving every once in a while, over the coming minutes.  

00:50:20 More bat sounds. It is clicking and listening to the bounce back echoes to determine where its prey might be.  

01:02:30 The brushtail is back. 

No music, no voices, just the sound of the forest waking up. I made this recording on a wintery morning, outside a hut high up in the mountains of Gippsland on Gunaikurnai land. I arrived in the dark and didn’t realise how high up the hill I was. As the sun rose it took time for it to reach the bottom of the gullies, and so the dawn chorus extended longer and was more distant and echoey. It’s harder than normal to decipher what’s what in this recording because all around the hut there were lyrebirds singing, and they’re masters of imitation. 

Listening notes from Ann Jones: 

00:00:00 As the sun rises and warms the roof, icy water drips to the ground creating clicks and drips throughout. Immediately, several lyrebird males can be heard rehearsing their songs. This isn’t normally the time of day that they’d be wooing a female directly, it’s more for practice and territorial defence, and also perhaps luring a female towards their dancing mound. They call like this throughout the coldest part of winter.  

00:02:06 Rather than an actual whipbird, I think that this is the lyrebird imitating a whip bird! 

 00:03:00 I think the interminable piping is from a white-throated tree creeper.  

00:05:00 It is possibly a striated thornbill group twittering close to the microphone, but certainly one of the ‘LBJ’ class. (That is what birders call ‘Little Brown Jobs’ – birds that are all small and brown and difficult to identify.)  

00:08:18 A wattlebird chucks.  

00:25:30 These are rosella sounds I think, the chattering that keeps them in contact as they move.  

00:30:39 Is it a kookaburra or a lyrebird imitating a kookaburra? I think the latter as it cuts off rather awkwardly – kookaburras often wind down at the end of their calls in a very funny moany-giggle.  

00:32:22 Here the lyrebird imitates, briefly, a black cockie within its stream of song. Other calls it imitates include grey shrikethrush, currawongs, magpies and wattlebirds.  

01:08:30 Actual yellow-tailed black cockatoos! There’s a story that they travel before rain but I’m not sure if anyone has done the science on that one. These are big cockies, much bigger than a sulphur crested. They have yellow patches under the tale and fly with long wing strokes somewhat like a waterbird. Absolutely majestic and you are obliged to stop and point to them when you see them.  

01:13:55 A kangaroo or wallaby thumps past.  

01:34:30 A small flock of gang-gang cockatoos fly past, which sound like squeaky doors. About the size of a galah they are mostly black. The males have red heads and instead of a crest like a cockie, they have a little feathery flourish on the top of their head like a centurion’s helmet. The females are mostly black with exquisite red detailing and together they call in this incredibly unique, needs-oiling croak. 

No music, no voices, just the sound of the forest waking up. This recording was made while traveling through Whadjuk Nyoongar land, WA. The birds differ between east and west Australia. That huge swathe of arid country in between has meant that birds have evolved into different sub-species, species and variants. 

Listening notes from Ann Jones:

00:00:00 Normally I would cut out my footsteps walking away from the microphone, but this audio is too beautiful. You can hear carolling magpies, as well as black cockatoos. These are either Baudin’s or Carnaby’s or both. They sometimes do hang out together. Both are endangered species.

00:04:05 An Australian ringneck parrot. This is about the size of a rosella and with a wonderful green body, a black head and a yellow neck around the nape of its head.

00:04:20 A pee-wee or mudlark calling here. They vary slightly across the continent.

00:14:50 Ringnecks are sometimes called twenty-eights in WA because that is sort of what their call sounds like – ‘twenty-eight’.

00:21:44 Here, there is a very, very high-pitched tinkling of a grey fantail, along with a magpie, an Australian raven and (we think) a grey shrike-thrush. Thanks to Tegan Douglas from Birdlife Australia, who helped me with these sounds!

00:24:40 If you’ve got a particularly good sound system, you might be able to pick up the rhythmic moan of the bronzewing pigeon.

00:26:39 The Australian raven is calling in the background here. It’s a big black bird with a funny beard that pops out, making its neck look really chunky.

00:28:20 Here comes a grey currawong with its chiming call echoing through the bushland. These are handsome, large birds. Maybe something that looks halfway between a magpie and a raven. Grey currawongs are mostly grey in different hues, but with white tips on the wings and tail. They walk and hop on the ground to forage for insects but are strong fliers and happily scale trees, ripping off bark to look for insects and raiding fruit trees.

00:43:00 Western gerygone (pronounced jerr-i-go-nee) is a sweet little hazel-eyed greyish bird with an adorable little tail and a sweet little two-note, three-syllable call. They spend their lives inside bushes and within the branches of trees, frustrating bird watchers. They occasionally flutter out to catch an insect on the wind. They build a nest that hangs off a twig and is wrapped in a spider’s web.

00:44:14 Probably a yellow-plumed honeyeater making those whistling calls with a red wattlebird making ‘chucks’, along with Australian raven moans and common bronzewing droning on in the background.

Thanks to Adrian Boyle, Tegan Douglas, Erika Roper and Nigel Jackett for helping ID some of the sounds. I had no hope.

No music, no voices, just the sound of a spring shower hitting a corrugated iron roof. This recording was made on Wadawurrung Country, in west Victoria, Australia.Listening notes from Ann Jones:

00:02:00 Wind in the trees, and grey currawongs calling to each other in chiming duets.

00:06:00 Galahs fly past, their nesting hollow is close by.

00:07:41 I think this could be brown thornbills, tiny little birds. But would you believe, they’re actually sort of chunky for thornbills, at about seven grams. Thornbills are super tricky to identify because they’re all tiny and brown. And on top of that, sometimes they like to hang out altogether in a big mixed flock feeding.

00:18:40 As a rain shower ends the birds still come out singing.

00:27:00 An eastern common froglet calling at the dam in the distance.

01:04:24 A superb fairy-wren comes and goes calling all the while.

No music, no voices, just the sound of the forest coming to life early one morning near Canberra -- where the gum trees grow small and with twisting white trunks. In the twilight of the morning I creep out from under the covers to set up the microphones right next to a dam.

We are on the land of the Ngunnawal and Ngambri people, and not far away there are paddocks, livestock, a road and a farmhouse. But right here all there is, is nature waking up for the day.

Listen for the drops of dew falling from the gumtrees and onto the leaf-litter below.

Listening notes from Ann Jones:

02:34, 04:50 and all through the recording, you can hear rosellas softly chattering to each other, their wing beats as they fly between trees, and the tiny clicks of them cracking open gumnuts to eat the softer seeds inside. They are probably crimson rosellas.

06:17 Australian magpies are the only birds in the world that carol like this.

08:15 Hear those wing beats? It's literally the sound of the air flowing over the feathers of bird wings. There are also black cockies calling in the distance just after this bird flies past.

15:26 This is the wing beat of a tiny bird, such as a thornbill or spinebill. It sounds like fluttering — "pfffffrt pfffffrt" — because they flap so fast each wing beat blurs into one shaky sound.

17:12 A wood duck calls from the dam, and sounds pretty happy with itself really (they always do). You can hear the duck's wings and also its feet on the water.

23:32 The rosellas continue their morning feast, and this is a particularly satisfying gumnut crack.

25:34 This is a rosella's flight call – a "sqwauk" that is often heard receding into the bush. Just ten seconds later, you hear the sweetest sound in the Australian bush – the piping, bell-like tings of the rosella's chiming call.

37:50 The "shhhhhhh" is the sound of a water-skiing wood duck.

40:49 Some small croaks from Crinia signifera – common eastern froglets. These are tiny little things, never getting bigger than 3cm, but their voice is mighty and carries a long way.

42:50 There is a bird having a bath on the edge of the dam.

47:00 The magpies really get going here and they are even joined by a kookaburra!

48:50 A sulphur-crested cockatoo does a flyby.

52:50 There are yellow-tailed black cockies in the distance as the magpies are singing their morning tunes.

1:01:15 A tiny bell-like repeating call of the eastern spinebill, a fetching tiny little bird with a long downward-curved bill for sipping nectar from flowers. Its call is one note, repeated and often getting faster as it goes. It's followed by magpie warbles and rosella chimes — then, a gust of wind pushes through the trees.

1:12:05 This is a white-throated tree creeper calling. It has special feet which enable it to grip onto a vertical surface, and it spends most of its time bouncing in an upwards direction around tree trunks looking for insects to eat.

1:15:40 You can hear a tiny bird, such as a scrubwren bouncing, alighting, flying and hunting in this section.

1:16:35 In the background there is the squeaky-toy beg of a juvenile sulphur-crested cockie, who manages to annoy its parents on both the exhale and inhale.

1:25:00 In this sequence, you can hear multiple magpies and how they sing together, because one is perched away from the microphones, and the other sounds like it's right on top of the microphone. The song is always started by the distant magpie, with the closer magpie joining in to finish the chorus.

1:31:54 The call of the yellow-faced honeyeater, which repeats throughout this whole recording.

1:32:24 The dew drops off the leaves fall onto the ground, and in this case, seem to occasionally hit something metallic!

1:32:40 A willy wagtail scolds in the background, as parrots nip open seeds and the magpie family goes through its repertoire of harmonica impressions.

1:36:38 The day is warming up, and the drips are dripping faster!

1:39:20 These very high pitched "ziiiits" are probably from thornbills, or … some other LBJ (Little Brown Job – birding-slang for a small brown species that is hard to identify).

1:40:50 There goes a wood duck!

1:42:10 The "chuck-chuck-chuck-chuck" call of a red wattlebird.

1:44:12 The little chatterbox call of the Australasian grebe, a tiny waterbird that loves dams like this, where there are areas of tall reeds with open water next door – the best of both worlds!

1:48:06 A rosella is chomping seeds and calling very close to the microphone here. You can hear the multi-tonal qualities of its voice.

1:51:57 Underneath a raucous sulphur-crested cockatoo call there is a sweet descending whistle of a white-throated gerygone (pronounced jeh-RIH-go-knee).

1:52:35 After the raucous cockies, this sounds like corellas chattering. They are both big white parrots, but the corellas do not have a crest, are smaller and have coloured skin around their eyes.

1:57:04 A black-faced cuckoo-shrike calls to its mate. This is a splendid little grey bird with a black mask, which is actually relatively common across all of Australia, though few people could recognise it. It's probably here in this patch of bushland because it borders farmland – they seem to like that semi-open sort of place to live.

1:59:00 The gerygone continues to call, along with a scolding willie wagtail and in the far distance, currawongs ring in the morning.

No music, no voices, just the sound of the Roebuck Bay mudflats near Broome, WA. Hear the breeze across the water, crabs and mudskippers flipping and flopping, and a tide that slowly comes in. Roebuck Bay is on the traditional lands of the Yawuru people is one of the most magical places in Australia. It is a 34,119-hectare mudflat, washed every day by a tide that reaches kilometres from the shoreline. In the sapphire waters there are all sorts of sea turtles, saw fish and dugongs, and the red sands roll down to meet the water in a way that is absolutely unique to this area. It is a wetland of international significance, used every year by at least 300,000 shorebirds as a launching pad for their migration to the Northern Hemisphere.

This recording is on the edge of the clicks and snips of tiny mudskippers as they move around the mudflats at low tides is the constant white noise of nature. On the edge of the mudflats of Broome you hear a mix of shorebirds and passerines as well as the cicadas which buzz in waves as the wet builds up.

SOUNDS LIKE: The 'shhhh' sound that tropical dreams are made of as gentle waves roll through mangrove trees on an island paradise. It's hushed and peaceful.

CONTAINS: Soft waves, and salt water moving quite continuously. Quiet insects throughout. The sounds occupy different frequencies and rhythms so they can all be heard clearly even when they're all calling. Listen for high pitched maraca-like single shakes, rickety-whirring phrases, tiny yaps marking a beat, or what sounds like a tiny mobile phone calling somewhere around 9khz.

RECOMMENDED FOR: Fans of quiet white noise, waves and water sounds. Or those who like blocking out noisy colleagues by putting on outrageously large headphones and listening to the ocean instead.

ANN'S NERDY SOUND NOTES:

This place is White Lotus meets scientific research. At the Orpheus Island Research Station, the island is skirted by bright white sand, its steep hills covered in green vegetation, but rather than pleasure craft, it's practical research vessels anchored in the bay.

Located in the Palm Islands on the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef, the Research Station is the sort of place that needs a dive shed (for all the gear), plus a fire pit (for evenings becoming mosquito food donors) and a wary eye (for the huge goanna that keeps on patrolling the shoreline).

I was visiting to film for Dr Ann's Secret Lives: bull sharks.

But this recording is not of the hectic process of catching a 200kg shark.

Instead, this is from the mainland-facing side of Goolboodi, AKA Orpheus Island, in the sea country of the Manbarra people about 110km north of Townsville.

The inlet is shallow, with a sweeping mudflat exposed at low tide, and epic mangrove trees around the edge. They're shaped like the 'tree of life' with roots spanning tens of metres and canopies to match, and the waves are forced to move through the roots, backwards and forwards, all night.

The recorder is attached to one of those trees — and its roots split the waves into hundreds of smaller pulses, so the rhythm is echoed and split, swirling and sometimes even gurgling.

But, as the water recedes, the waves become more distant and more individually distinct. Eventually, rather than pushing onto the roots, the water filters through sand and mudflat, making the 'shhhhh' sound that tropical dreams are made of.

You will hear the occasional plonk, bump or metallic sound as the research boats anchored further out in the bay interact with the rolling water.

00:24:12 and 25:15 An Eastern Koel calling in the night. They call quite incessantly as they're relatively nomadic and their relationships are fleeting. So they're always on the bird equivalent of the apps (screaming a lot in case anyone hears).

No music, no voices, just the sound of a valley halfway up a Tasmanian mountain. This soundscape is full of birds and breeze echoing backwards and forwards across a reservoir. Kunyani is swirled with mist and the city of Hobart spreads below, in miniature, on a still, early morning.  

We’re halfway up the mountain, at the Hobart Waterworks Reserve where two huge reservoirs store water for use by the populace below. The deep valley where the reservoirs are situated means there is an echoey, dream-like quality to all the sound. You can hear a unique mix of forest and water birds at this place every single morning.   

There were tawny frogmouths coming as I trudged up the hill, and as I was sitting listening to the day unfold a scarlet robin danced on the edge of the bush — feeding, patrolling and, just maybe, calling for the microphone.  

Listening notes from Ann Jones: 

06:06 A fan-tailed cuckoo calls, making a trilling, descending whistle, quavering slightly as it goes. This cuckoo is a parasitic breeder, sneakily laying its eggs into another bird's nest. The fan-tailed cuckoo in particular targets tiny birds, like scrubwrens, to bring up its offspring.  

07:10 Kookaburras are not native to Tasmania, but were introduced in the early 20th century and are established.  

12:51 The ploinking call is probably part of the call repertoire of the grey shrikethrush. 

13:38 A single call of a green rosella. This bird is only found in Tasmania and is Australia’s largest rosella.  

14:10 The repetitive notes of the striated pardalote, calling in almost perfectly timed beats.  

19:52 The deep oooom of a bronzewing pigeon calling from the bushland. Often heard, rarely seen!  

23:15 The kelp gulls, normally associated with the seaside, love to visit the reservoir. You can hear their calls echoing over the water and around the hills. They look like a big, beefy seagull with a black cape on, a bright yellow beak with a spot of red lipstick.   

25:10 The footsteps of a jogger running past the microphone.  

37:14 European blackbirds are singing throughout much of this recording. Released into Australia and well established in the colder areas, these songsters fill the air with a distinctive song. Think the beginning of Blackbird by The Beatles — it is, literally, a blackbird recording. Here they’re interspersed with native Australian birds, but it’s the one that sounds like an old man whistling an unknown tune.  

38:20 Listen for the flight calls of the green rosellas.  

40:10 Behind the grey shrikethrush and the blackbird, there are tiny chirps and a sequence of extremely high-pitched twitters, like a sea shanty sung in super-fast motion. This is the grey fantail, who will be flitting and flying through the dappled sunlight catching insects on the wing.  

41:07 This slightly grumpy sounding quack is probably a pacific black duck.  

49:32 The grey shrikethrush sings with clarity and force, and all across Australia its call varies slightly.  

55:30 The kookaburras are still solidifying the boundaries of their territories and their relationships by singing choruses across the other side of the reservoir.  

56:36 A coot doing its harmonic squawk.  

1:15:34 The alarm call of the blackbird, who has momentarily stopped singing to warn of danger.  

1:24:18 You can hear a masked lapwing become upset and take off, calling and swirling in the air.  

1:28:34 A short interlude from distant ravens. These are forest ravens, the only sort that can be found in Tasmania.  

1:29:15 A duck is chattering away in the background. I think it’s a wood duck! Quack!

No music, no voices, just the sound of a gentle stream and frogs calling on a still, cool night in regional Victoria.

Moonlight floods the landscape of Wadawurrung country. Big, old candlebarks stand still and silent and a creek flows through a shallow valley. Grasses grow up to the waist, except where kangaroos have been nibbling them! And within the sedges by the creek lurk frogs who revel in the still night, the cold air and the perfect opportunity to sing for a mate.

It's hard to hear many of the other sounds above the water flowing and the frogs, but there are actually many creatures in this recording if you've got very good ears and time to listen hard.

Listening notes from Ann Jones:

01:50 Common eastern froglet with a "creaky-creaky-creaky" call. Don't let the name fool you — these are tiny frogs, with a maximum size of 3cm. The best way to see them is to wait until night and use a torch to try and see tiny little eyes on the edge of the water. They will appear in almost any habitat really, they're not too picky and will probably breed at any time of year also.

24:00 The brown tree frogs are calling. These are medium frogs – that means they'll only get up to about 4.5cm. It's a pretty common little frog throughout the south-eastern part of the mainland – and will be heard in natural areas, farms and even in town! They'll call at basically any time of year.

25:42 A female powerful owl is calling in the distance. This is Australia's largest owl, and the female's call is ringing out across her territory.

38:48 A female fox is calling in a characteristic scream/cough, though it's very faint with all the rowdy frogs. She's advertising her presence to other foxes, and who knows if she got a response. She did set distant dogs off barking though! These dogs bark on and off throughout this whole recording. Their voices really carry – I think they were well over a kilometre away. You can just hear their lower tones floating underneath the close water and frog sound.

44:27 A possum in a tree being rowdy as it cullumps through the branches.

51:20 Sugar gliders are nearby, chirping out their little barks. And also…. if you listen closely, you can hear a launch, silence while she glides, and a landing. To be fair though, this could be a ringtail in the tree, as shortly after the noises, a ringtail starts calling. Possibly more likely to be a ringtail, they're more clumsy.

52:05 The ringtail sounds like an extremely high-frequency horse's whinny. They almost sound like insects. They have a prehensile tail, meaning they use it to grip branches, or to carry things, like bunches of leaves back to their hollows. The ringtails in Victoria are, I think, much cuter than the ringtails further north. Gauntlet thrown.

1:34:45 I think this sharp, strong insect sound is possibly a katydid.

2:12:40 You can hear the scolding, throat-clearing calls of the brush-tailed possums. There are several through this recording and they also move through trees, in a very characteristically noisy way throughout the soundscape. If you hear rustling, it's likely a possum looting a tree.

2:38:10 This is one of those breaks, where all the frogs just decide, through some cue, to stop calling all at once in an area. Then, one will start up — and it all kicks off again.

CONTAINS: A consistent insect chorus with a rufous owl calling intermittently throughout.

RECOMMENDED FOR: Those who like white noise, brown noise, pink noise. For people who want a consistent soundscape to help mask the sounds of the city, who want something almost mechanical or synthesised to help drown their thoughts.

ANN'S NERDY SOUND NOTES:

Subtle pulsations, and vibrations, with ticking, buzzing and swooshing that forms soft waves of white noise. It is the insect chorus in rainforest in Cape York, QLD.

This recording was taken in the area under the care of Mapoon Aboriginal Council, next to a tidal river with mangroves in a patch of forest that is dense with life.

There are crickets and katydids calling and probably a large range of other things that I'll never be able to identify.

00:01:20 An orange-footed scrubfowl is calling in the distance.

00:08:40 The clicks and snaps of movement. Also, of things falling from trees — perhaps discarded seeds by animals, leaves, or fruit.

00:15:00 A brush cuckoo calling.

00:15:50 The scream is a Tyto — either a Barn Owl or a Grass Owl. The calls are rather too similar to tell them apart.

00:24:00 The metal 'sproing' call of a large-tailed nightjar — a bird which looks like leaf litter, but sounds like an industrial accident.

00:33:45 The bounding thumps of a macropod.

00:46:30 Now, at first I thought… frogmouth? What is that. But then I roped in my friend Dr Jodi Rowley, who then had to call in a second opinion. AND… drum roll — it is Litoria infrafrenata the white-lipped tree frog. Jodi says it's sort of unusual to hear its calls grouped together like that.

00:53:30 An Eastern Koel calling. I wonder if they ever get any sleep. It seems that they turn up everywhere I record, no matter the time!

00:55:30 That is the call of a rufous owl — a large nocturnal owl who looks a little like it is wearing a stripy 'Where's Wally' top in cream and orange. It also has a much milder resting 'expression' that the powerful owl — this one looking as if it *slightly* concerned for your welfare but if you wake it up in the daytime, it's eyes will absolutely boggle at the audacity.

01:10:10 Yes, probably a cow. There are also feral horses and boars in the area.

01.10.40 I'm actually not sure what is making this keening sound.

01:13:20 Perhaps a fruit bat calling out. They could be responsible for some of the 'cracks' and 'tocks' of things hitting the leaf litter.

01:17:15 The large-tailed nightjar is back bouncing away.

01:21:40 the chirr of an owlet nightjar — another bird which looks a little bit like a piece of a branch.

01:22:00 Orange-footed scrubfowl.

01:32:45 The brush cuckoo calling with it's diagnostic series of descending whistles.

01:38:15 A shrike-thrush calls. I wonder whether it woke itself up from a dream.

01:41:06 I believe this is a brushtail possum!

01:48:50 The owlet nightjar is tiny but gives mighty little cries.

01:50:50 Now why insects do this — call. Stop. Start. Stop. Please someone point me towards why?

01:56:15 A wallaby with a smokers cough?

02:14:00 A seriously silly call from the orange-footed scrubfowl.

02:19:35 I think this little grunt may actually be a scrub turkey — they make funny little low pitched kazoo like calls, but it could also be a wompoo fruit dove being weird. Animals are not always predictable. 

With thanks to Dr Elliot Leach and Gus Daly for putting up with a group chat where I send snippets of sound for them to identify.

SOUNDS LIKE: You're waking up while on holiday in a tropical rainforest, surrounded by exotic birds. Layers of sound are like vine tendrils curling through the jungle canopy: the birds are near, far, above and right next to you. Let them drown out whatever is giving you the sh*ts.

In reality, this place in Cape York isn't really visited by tourists. It's one of those spots that the locals from Mapoon Aboriginal Shire Council in Far North Queensland know about. 

CONTAINS: Mostly birbs. And a curious wallaroo later on.You'll hear green orioles, which sound like someone dropping PVC pipes, orange-footed scrubfowl which call out like an old lady (a posh one) getting a fright and even one of Australia's rarest birds, the palm cockatoo. Minimal flies and mozzies. 

RECOMMENDED FOR: Those who wish they could travel to every corner of the globe, for when you need something a bit louder to drown out some neighbours, or your thoughts. For bird people (and those who wish they were bird people).

ANN'S NERDY SOUND NOTES:

There is a 4WD track in western Cape York that leads from the highway towards a tidal river filled with crocs and sharks. Just as you're about to hit the high tide mark - that's where this recording is taken.

It is 'riparian forest' which is the fancy way of saying it's forest on a riverbank. In this part of the world, it means thick vegetation with vines growing throughout, the foliage providing shade from the blasting sun, but also keeping the humidity high.

There are rare (in Australia) Nypa Palms emerging from muddy water or even at the mangroves edge and let's face it, something that could bite you is never more than 30cm away.

This is one of those recordings where there's so much going on, I almost don't know where to start when explaining what I can hear.

00:00:00 A dawn chorus, though, if you listen very carefully there is a cross over of some nocturnal birds. The large-tailed nightjar sounds like a metal spring being repeatedly bounced. Boing boing boing boing. Hearing this sound may be dependent on the volume you're listening at! Always listen ONLY to your comfort level (or leave it on full blast when you go out for the neighbours to listen to).

00:01:45  A black butcherbird calls, the largest of Australia's butcherbirds. It sounds a little bit like a child pretending to shoot a laser gun, then, perhaps the sound you'd make going over a speed bum too fast!

00:01:50 Throughout this recording there is a hum, that comes and goes in long swathes. This isn't the hum of a distant generator or plant machinery. It is the activity, I think, of many hundreds of insects - perhaps crickets? They sound a little bit like the string section of an orchestra warming up or a distant gang of very angry bees.

00:02:00 This sound though, louder and closer to the microphone is a green oriole. Ironically, also called the Australasian yellow oriole. It has a fetching millennial pink beak and sounds like several large water droplets hitting a suspended metal bowl in a cave.

00:04:50 SO. MUCH. GOING. ON.

00:04:44 Oh my goodness that is the sound of one of the rarest birds in the world. Palm Cockatoos. High pitched, almost shrill, and entirely wonderful.

00:04:50 Mosquito. I promise there will not be too many throughout the recording, though, there was in real life. Mosquito sounds are sometimes intense around their target species (say… humans!) and because the recorder is out there, all alone, we don't get too many.

00:07:30 The wompoo fruit dove in the background, lower in tone than the other birds! What a little legend. Sounds a little bit like Austen Powers trying to get you onto a dance floor boom shaka-WOOOO baby.

00:08:35 I think that perhaps, the harsh grating is a spangled drongo (or perhaps a trumpet manucode). A trumpet manucode, a glossy black bird within the family we call 'birds of paradise'. Part of its call sounds like an ancient tree creaking or a blowfly stuck in a small tin can. The other park like a cartoon effect of children blasting off a trampoline into space!

00:09:02 Large-billed Gerygone, one of the group of small brown birds that can be difficult to tell apart. The Australian Bird Guide describes the bill as 'hefty' and the eyelids white with a call that is often 'loud and cheery'.

00:11.24 potential broad-billed flycatcher calling here with a buzzing sort of call. Now, judging by the name you'd almost expect something like a boat-bill (yes, that is a bird) but to be honest, I reckon I'd have trouble picking the broad-billed from a bill line- up. It is, maybe, shaped a little thicker through the middle than other flycatchers like the Taj Mahal instead of an A-frame house, but you'd have to see it from underneath to be able to tell at all! It gleans insects (picks them off vegetation or other surfaces) and also sallies (sits on a branch then launches out to swoop around and catch an insect while airborne, then returning to the perch).

00:12:00 There are so many smaller parrot fly-byes in this recording! Could be lorikeets, red-cheeked parrots there are so many sorts and most of them scream as they fly!

00:12:50 This is a shrike-thrush either a grey or a Little. In fact, it's probably two calling back and forward.

00:13:32 this makes me think little shrike thrush.

00:14:15 a dove or pigeon, but which one?!

00:15:03 Bar-shouldered dove AND torresian imperial pigeon, (please correct me I'm out of my depth!) 

00:15:45 A torresian imperial pigeon.

00:20:20 Sounds slightly like someone trying to break out of a box. I know that great bowerbirds make sounds similar to this.

00:21:10 There is a high-pitched clipping chirp here probably an insect calling loudly on the left side of the microphones. It's paced a little like a resting heart beat monitor.

00:24:45 fan-tailed cuckoo? But see, there is an amazing kingfisher in QLD called the yellow-billed kingfisher, and it also makes a descending trill and sometimes a long drawn out one like the sound that follows.

00:25:45 Black butcherbird making series of four notes, as if scanning four items at the supermarket in record time.

00:34:15 Welcome to the show Mr / Mrs orange footed scrubfowl.

00:35:05 Yes, they sound like a cartoon rooster getting strangled.

00:35:50 Could that be a Northern Fantail? There are so many noises going on that my brain is finding it hard to hold onto any one sound!

00:36:40 Just drawing your attention to the thrumming of the insect chorus.

00:38:55 You can hear the orange footed scrub fowl in the leaf litter, scratching around. They're part of the megapode family- that means 'big feet'.

00:43:25 I think the wompoo fruit-dove is making that noise actually? The one that sounds like it's breaking out of a cardboard box.  It's sort of the start of a call that *should* end with a 'boom shaka-wooooo'

00:44:40 The scrubfowl is really going for those grubs!

00:47:08 The torresian imperial-pigeon is a large white and black pigeon, and its 'cool-woooooo' call is commonly heard throughout the towns of the north of Australia. They often sit up like big blobs of whiteout at the top of trees.

00:51:55 The scrubfowls are such characters just screaming like anything in the middle of the bush.

00:53:32 This could be a varied triller, a bird which looks as if it should be in the northern hemisphere (to my eye). Perhaps if a mud lark and a shining bronze cuckoo had a love child, it would be this bird.

01:00:20 I love the fact that a bird (I assume the scrubfowl) just stomps past.

01:01:01 The large-tailed nightjar is boinging again.

01:05:20 A rare moment of insect chorus having a chance to be heard among the birds.

01:06:50 In the distance brolgas are calling they sound like jazz a trumpet.

01:15:55 I tend to think that that is two macropods? Just a gut feeling I think, based on the rhythm and style of movements.

01:16:35 You can hear the air running over those parrot wings as they go past.

01:17:04 this is the black butcherbird back again.

01:20:50 I think that's the yellow-billed kingfisher! I wish I could've seen it.

01:21:10 Characteristic macropod thump. Agile wallabies and antilopine wallaroos both exist in this area.

01:28:10 The mammals bring the flies. I swear.

A million thankyou's to Dr Ross Dwyer for on the ground technical support in Cape York (I am sorry about the flat tyre), and also Dr Elliot Leach, Gus Daly and Dr Christina Zdenek for their invaluable expertise in identifying some of the sounds in this recording. All mistakes are my own. 

Recording: Dr Ann Jones.

Mastering: Isabella Tropiano

Executive Producer, Audio for ABC Science: Petria Ladgrove.

SOUNDS LIKE: You have eschewed modern life and joined your new BFF — a wombat — to live a life of naps, snacks and cute attacks. 

CONTAINS:  A clear, cold night and the wombats are stirring, stomping, scratching and most of all, crunching their way through about 2kgs of grass. Nearby, the wombat's neighbours undertake nocturnal shenanigans and no-one seems to get any sleep. Except you. There are birds which should be awake, birds which should be asleep, possums and the star of the show — the bare-nosed wombats.

RECOMMENDED FOR: Explorers and the curious, those who want to feel awe and joy at discovering secrets that nature holds close to her chest.

ANN'S NERDY SOUND NOTES:

I didn't set out to record wombats. But when I went out one evening on Ngunnawal Country in the ACT, I stumbled upon an area that was almost as if it'd been exploded from below - there were holes and dirt EVERYWHERE.

And I know a wombat poo when I see one -> 🟫 <- 

So, I found an active burrow entrance, with some grass nearby (that I thought could be quite delicious to a wombat) and attached the recorder at stumpy-little-hairy-leg height.

The Murrumbidgee River is flowing about 10 metres away. Its banks are lined by big old eucalypts and a fair amount of scratchy vegetation (ask me how I know.)

Bare-nosed (or common) wombats do lots of scratching. Lots of eating. A bit of bulldozing through things, maybe a fight. And that's just one night!

00:01:30 Boobook calls. And in the distance, almost imperceptibly to the human ear in this recording, another answer. 

00:01:50 A micro bat flies past - you can hear a series of extremely high pitched 'pips' that doppler.  

00:03:10 A bat feeding buzz - the echo location calls are much, much closer together as it zeros in on its prey. And no, I have no idea what the wood ducks are going on about.

00:04:08 Wood ducks like to roost in trees, nest in hollows, and sometimes, make noises like cats. You can hear the ducks roosting in different parts across the river and across answering back.

00:07:56 A brushtail possum staking it's claim in the trees they sound like a cross between a smoker's cough and the flush of a toilet. 

00:09:17 I'm calling it. That's a waterbird doing a poo over the water. 

00:10:50 Who flies around at night AND makes water landings? Wood ducks.

I expected many things from this soundscape, but I did not expect the wood ducks to be quite so active in the night. They barely get any sleep!

00:15:48 let the munching begin. 

00:16:20 There are lambs somewhere in the distance. The area is full of merino farms and Namadgi National Park.

00:16:30 The slow cracking of sticks sounds mammalian - and there are multiple species in the area.  In favour of the wombat, I can't hear the movement normally associated with macropod grazing: a slow gait of back legs and front legs/tail. Also, it sounds like it's pushing through stuff, which... is a very wombat thing to do.

00:23:45 A rooster in the distance. 

00:26:30 Lot s of pulling and ripping and chewing and stomping.

00:27:15 –The frog chorus in this recording contains the average suspects crinia signifera and crinia parasignifera the common eastern froglet and the sign-bearing froglet.

I think there is also spotted marsh frog in there, though not in the same numbers or frequency of calls as the others, and perhaps a distant pobblebonk.

00:30:22 I am over 95% sure of that little harsh screaming grating sound in the distance? That is a grumpy wombat telling another wombat to back off.

00:30:54 Wombat smoker's cough? I'm imagining it like Ben Affleck outside the burrow. Just having a moment. 

00:33:10 Superb fairy wren. 

00:35:40 Lots going on here - the wombat pushing through sticks, there's chewing, a boobook, an owlet nightjar, a brush tail possum and the frog chorus. 

00:37:20 Though this sounds a little bit like a barn owl, it probably is a wombat they make a grating, hissing, deathly call when they're having a territorial dispute. They also bulldoze around. 

00:38:00 The screaming call of a wombat, perhaps a female. In between you can hear lower growling grunts. 

00:39:00 A sequence featuring the wombat chewing, a fairy wren and then a masked lapwing (AKA PLOVER!)

00:44:40 Wombat scratchy.

00:46:58 Sulphur-crested cockatoos in the distance (thank goodness - they're pretty raucous)

00:49:45 The lapwings are upset by something. You can hear the bird doing it's circle of the area to assess danger and give warnings to all who come.

00:53:55 A wombat sigh.

No music. No voices. Just the sound of a creek bed in outback Australia.

In the Murchison district in Western Australia you're surrounded by low lying ranges where rocks have been found that are 4.4 billion years old — they're almost as ancient as the planet itself.

Among the crests and dips of Wajarri country is a creek bed on Boolardy Station. Not flowing, but water is still there. And the places where there is water in this arid environment – well, it's a mecca for birdlife.

Listen for: chiming wedgebills, lots of flies and other insects, rainbow bee-eaters, crested bellbirds, babblers and diamond doves among many many more. 

Mix Engineer: Isabella Tropiano.

This program is produced on the land of the Wathawurung people.

No music, no human voices. Just the sound of an epic summer storm rolling on through the evening.

I recorded this at my home. It had been a hot day, and in the late afternoon there was a crack of thunder. I walked out, set the recorder near the woodpile and recorded into the night.

In this recording you can hear rain falling, hitting the earth and also hitting the microphones. And you can hear lots and lots of thunder.

At first, the afternoon and evening chorus continues, but as the storm intensifies, just the cockies scream. Then, as darkness falls, insects take up the lulls between thunder and rain.

Mix Engineer: Isabella Tropiano.

This program is produced on the land of the Wathawurung people.

No music, no human voices, just the sound of night falling over bushland near Narrabri, recorded by the ABC's Ann Jones. It sounds like camping.

Narrabri is in North West NSW, in an incredibly fertile farming area. And yep, you guessed it, where it's fertile, it means you won't get much bushland left intact.

This bushland is a patch on the Llara Farm which is used by the University of Sydney for research. I was lucky enough to travel there to film a program about technology and nature for 'Catalyst' on ABC TV.

This recording differs a little from some of the others I've made for Nature Track. For example, there is no way that I can completely remove the distant sound of highway movement, of the endless trucks ferrying agricultural products towards the city.

But this is an incredibly endearing mix of the insect chorus for me. It sounds like camping.

A chorus of ravens in the distance, along with cockies going to sleep, and some sounds I cannot identify kick off this most relaxing soundscape yet.

Listening notes from Ann Jones:

00:00:45 I have no idea what this insect is, but I love it.

00:10:20 I think this is actually a boobook – they make this sound when they're close to another boobook, rather than calling across a distance.

00:30:35 One of the many sounds produced by foxes. They have a really wide vocabulary and can sound human-like, bird-like and just plain scary in the night.

00:41:00 A bat circles past on its nightly food run echo-locating for both navigation and prey detection.

00:46:30 A sneaky dog. I can't tell you how much time I spend pulling dogs out of nature recordings. They're almost ubiquitous in Australian landscapes

00:58:40 I can hear a frog here, that's sounds a bit like a ruler twanged against a school desk. I think it might be a spotted marsh frog – Limnodynastes tasmaniensis.

01:12:00 A distant boobook, the smallest owl in Australia, along with some fox calls and bat flybys.

01:21:00 The terrifying scream of a barn owl. Yes, they look magnificent. Sound terror-ific too.

Mix Engineer: Isabella Tropiano.

This program is produced on the land of the Wathawurung people.

No music. No voices. Just the sound of a quiet ocean inlet in the early evening, recorded by the ABC's Dr Ann Jones. This shoreline is home to many wallabies; will they make any sound?

This was recorded over the summer of 2021/22 as I was spending time on Phillip Island / Millowl in Victoria, filming for 'Meet the Penguins' on ABC TV. I put the recorder out at Rhyll Inlet as the sun is setting. It's been a hot day and the cicadas are calling. Rhyll Inlet is a mixture of saltmarsh, mudflats, mangroves and some scrubby bits too. Slightly uphill, away from the water, there are grassy areas where wallabies abound. This is where the recording is taken. 

Listening notes from Ann Jones:

00:00:39 Lower toned repeating call given in a short burst is the white-eared honeyeater. This bird is striking. It's somewhere between green and yellow, with a black face and a blob of white right behind its eye.

00:02:20 This is still that same honeyeater.

00:02:35 Eastern rosellas – gorgeous birds and I can just imagine their tails fanning and shaking as they speak with each other.

00:03:40 The kookaburras are joining the chorus – announcing to one and all how strong they are as a family, and how well defended their territory is.

00:06:08 MAGPIES! This chorus gets better and better.

00:07:38 The gorgeous clear flute-like quality gives this away as a grey shrike thrush. Followed closely by a masked lapwing. Phillip Island is a hot spot for masked lapwings, which like to rest on the ground. So, the fox-free island means they have good numbers.

00:09:02 The red wattlebird sounds as if it's the shutter mechanism on a giant, broken camera.

00:10:50 The first incursion of a cape barren goose into the recording.

00:18:12 This is a wallaby moving, they sometimes thump down with surprising force.

00:18:40 …and there it goes.

00:21:45 The GST is really giving a fantastic performance.

00:22:06 It wouldn't surprise me if this is a swamp wallaby snapping a stick to eat. They're voracious.

00:25:40 The masked lapwing (maybe known to you as a kid as the spur-winged plover) goes past screaming.

00:26:05 This is a grey butcherbird and it makes me doubt some of my grey shrike thrush IDs from earlier – they both can sing as if playing an enchanted flute.

00:39:12 You can hear the fantails beak clacking as it calls, and flies about. It sounds like tiny little knuckles being cracked in rapid succession.

Mix Engineer: Isabella Tropiano.

This program is produced on the land of the Wathawurung people.